How does Mark Butler’s own electorate stack up in relation to solar power?
Mark Butler has been the Australian Labor Party representative for the electoral division of Port Adelaide, South Australia since the 2007 federal election.
On Monday, he became Australia’s Minister for Climate Change; Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Water. So where does Minister Butler stand on the topic of solar and how does his own electorate shape up?
According to ‘Solar Revolution briefers’ sent out as part of 100% Renewable’s Solar Scorecard initiative, Port Adelaide has 11,775 solar homes. Based on an average size of 2.5kW; this represents a total capacity of 29.4MW.
The Port Adelaide brief says its constituents have invested approximately $88 million in solar power, are offsetting 36,797 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and saving $6,594,000 a year on power bills.
The Climate Minister’s electorate is ranked number 20 among solar electorates nation-wide. The top solar electorate nationally is also in South Australia – Mayo, with 25.43% of homes in that region having rooftop solar panel systems installed.
A map created The Guardian’s Nick Evershed based on details from 100% Renewable’s Solar Scorecard project shows 17.19% of homes in Port Adelaide have solar installed.
Minister Butler’s Solar Scorecard can be viewed here; state briefers here and electorate briefers here.
The briefers have been sent to all Federal MPs and Senators, and the organisation is now disseminating the documents via local media and groups around the country. The briefers contain customised data by electorate on the number of solar homes, the amount of clean energy generated, the amount invested by constituents in solar, the amount of carbon emissions avoided and the amount saved on power bills.
100% Renewable is a community initiative working to build community and political support for renewable energy. It is non-partisan and not affiliated with any political party.
Another 100% Renewable project rapidly gaining steam is Solar Citizens, which is bringing together existing and future owners of solar power systems.
